Gang in taxi snatches Rs 45lakh on flyover

A STAFF REPORTER

A gang of robbers in a taxi stopped an SUV a Chennai-based businessman was travelling in, snatched a briefcase containing Rs 45 lakh from him and abducted one of his companions on Aurobindo Setu, near Maniktala, on Sunday afternoon.

Sahil Hamid, the businessman, was on his way to Dunlop along with two men. The duo, Niranjan and Pankaj, had apparently helped him strike a deal with a trader to purchase brass. Police suspect the two were involved in the crime.

Niranjan and Pankaj, who had contacted Hamid through one of his business acquaintances, had promised to broker deals to purchase brass.

Hamid came to the city about a week back and put up at a hotel off Christopher Road, near Entally.

Around 2.30pm on Sunday, he had set off for Dunlop in a Toyota Innova along with Niranjan and Pankaj. According to the police, Niranjan had helped the businessman hire the vehicle.

Around 3.30pm, the taxi blocked the path of the vehicle on the flyover between Maniktala and Ultadanga. Cops said five men got off the taxi and forcibly took away briefcase that Hamid, who was sitting in the front seat of the car, was holding. The money in the briefcase was to be paid to the trader selling brass.

Hamid told the police that while two of the robbers had targeted him, the rest attacked Niranjan and Pankaj, who were in the back seat. Pankaj was dragged into the cab, which sped away.

Hamid lodged an FIR with Maniktala police station.

An investigator said they were interrogating Niranjan as he and Pankaj might have tipped off the robbers about businessman’s movements.

“The heist was not possible without specific information about the road the businessman was taking to Dunlop. It seems the duo were in touch with the robbers. The abduction was staged to divert attention,” said a sub-inspector at Maniktala police station.

nMolest arrest: Officers of Lake police station arrested a youth in his 20s for allegedly molesting a six-year-old girl with intellectual disability on Sunday evening.

Police said the girl’s parents had asked a local diagnostic centre to collect their daughter’s blood sample as she had been suffering from fever for the past two days. The centre sent Parvez Ali to collect the sample on Sunday afternoon.

According to the complaint lodged by the girl’s mother, Ali molested the girl after she went to another room, where her glasses were kept, to sign the receipt.